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TDSB aims to remove barriers for students, not options

A task force at Canada’s largest school board has changed an equity report that prompted backlash from parents and students over the future of special education and arts-based schools, with no immediate plans to eliminate programs.

The report from the Toronto District School Board, aimed at ensuring all students have equal access to special programs regardless of where they live or their socioeconomic or racial backgrounds, generated controversy after a draft released in October sparked fear it could spell the end of options ranging from specialty schools to gifted classrooms.

In an interview with the Star last month, TDSB director John Malloy pledged that families will always be able to choose the best option for their children. (BERNARD WEIL / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

But the revised report from the enhancing equity task force, which will be voted on by trustees at their Wednesday night board meeting, says those programs won’t be taken away.

“Currently the system works well for some students and not others,” states the report, which was amended following public input that included more than 5,000 online submissions.

“Equity takes nothing away from the students who are already thriving in the education system; rather, it creates supports for those the system is currently failing.”

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It calls for a review of special education, which includes gifted programs, with a focus on integrating more students into regular classrooms and “retaining congregated sites while exploring options to include special education at a home school.”

However, some parents still fear the TDSB’s plan to include more special ed students in regular classrooms could jeopardize the success of many who are gifted or learn differently.

“Not all special education students will benefit from full inclusion,” stressed Shellie Suter, chair of the learning disabilities parent group at Northern Secondary School, after reading the revised equity report.

“Choice should be preserved for parents to choose what’s best for their child,” said Suter, who has a son in Grade 11 in a program that provides smaller classes and extra help for students with learning disabilities.

While those programs will continue, she said it’s still uncertain whether families will always have access and be informed that they have the option of choosing congregated classes like those offered at Northern Secondary, where 400 students are in the gifted program and another 400 have learning disabilities.

However trustee Shelley Laskin said the report is clear that a range of choices will continue, from inclusive classrooms that accommodate children with special ed needs to classrooms and schools specifically for those who are gifted or have other special ed needs in a smaller and more supported environment.

“I see no plan to dismantle congregated gifted programs,” she said Monday.

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Her remarks echoed a promise made in an interview last month by TDSB director John Malloy, who pledged that families will always be able to choose the best option for their children.

But parents like Suter say they worry special ed students will be “collateral damage” amid the push towards inclusion and the recommendation to destream Grades 9 and 10 courses, which will remove the option for kids to enrol in smaller applied-level classes.

The report calls for phasing out applied courses in those grades over the next three years “to allow a majority” of students to take academic-level classes, which are required for university.

If the report is approved, plans will be made in the new year about which recommendations can be implemented and how. Malloy is to present his proposals for the next steps at a Jan. 31 board committee meeting, where members of the public will be able to put forth their ideas or objections.

Concerns over special education voiced by parents and some teachers reflect a larger debate as the TDSB and other boards move towards a more inclusive model of education that includes learners of all kinds in regular classrooms. They worry too many children are being integrated without the resources and staff they need to help them learn, which puts them and their peers at risk.

The shift to inclusion cannot be seen as a cost-cutting measure because it actually requires more investment in additional classroom staff who are essential to help kids learn, says Nigel Barriffe, a TDSB special education teacher who is currently working for the Toronto local of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario.

“On the ground, on the frontlines, that is not happening,” says Barriffe, who is also president of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations and agrees with the report’s broader focus on making all programs more accessible to students across the city.

But he warns that failure to provide proper classroom resources has led to too many children floundering, waiting months for assessments and frustrated students with behaviour problems acting out violently in classrooms — an issue that has been the subject of a campaign by the teachers’ union.

The TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) has introduced a number of motions in the last 18 months aimed at pushing the board to adopt more inclusive programs for students with special needs, arguing the TDSB has significantly more congregated classes than its other Ontario counterparts.

But last week, local parent Melissa Rosen moved a motion, passed by the committee, which stressed the need for families to have a range of choices to meet the diverse special education needs of children.

Other changes in the revised equity report included removing a controversial recommendation that had called for phasing out specialty schools such as the board’s six arts-based schools and instead creating those options within clusters of schools throughout the city so kids can access them closer to home.

That raised hackles among families who feared it would also mean the end of other programs like the TOPS science program or international baccalaureate, though the TDSB vowed it will not close those.

But the revised report does call for a review of specialty programs to identify barriers, making sure all kids have access and to ensure that optional attendance — which allows students to apply for schools outside their neighbourhoods — is applied fairly.

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